Utilizing the phosphorus and iron of forge-cinder



Price.

JACOB REESE, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANL UTILIZING THE PHOSPHORUS AND IRON OF FORGE-CINDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 278,737, dated June 5, 1883. Application filed January 19, 1882. (No model.)

L" all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JACOB REESE, a resident of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in processes of utilizing the phosphorus and iron of forgecinder in the manufacture of ingot iron and steel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Forge-cinder is principally formed by the waste from the iron-ore lining of the sides and bottom of the metal-working chamber of the puddling-furnace.

It usually contains from five to fifteen per cent. of phosphoric acid and from fifty to sixty per cent. of metallic iron; and its production at present is probably five hundred thousand tons per anninn in this country. A pure and refractory ore is required to form the lining, the quality required costing at present about twelve dollars per ton in Pittsburg, and this lining, as before stated,

melts down and forms a basic slag, into which the phosphorus is transferred during puddling, the amount transferred being in prop ortion to the care and skill exercised by the puddler. For a considerable period of time after the introduction of the boiling or puddling process the forge or tap cinder was thrown aside as a waste product; but more recently and at the present time it is utilized by charging a limited quantity with the iron ores into the blast-furnace, the amount used seldom exceeding fifteen per cent. of the charge, and the product being an inferior grade of forge or foundry metal. XVhen such a grade of metal is puddled the slag, as a matter of course. becomes highly phosphoritic, a portion of the slag remains in the puddled bar, and a weak, inferior quality of iron is produced. defects are continually augmented by the use of the forge-cinder in the blast-furnace, as the phosphorus is continually returned from the puddling to the blast furnace, and there increased by the amount present in the ores and fuel.

From the preceding matter it will be readily understood that the presence of the phosphorus in the slag has been such a serious detriment to the utilization of the metal of the slag in the manufacture of. forge-metal and These and then treated in the converter.

puddled bars that it has been of no use whatever either in the blast-furnace or in the puddling process, that it has injured the product, and that these defects cannot be remedied except by discontinuing the use of the slag and throwing it aside as a waste product.

Now, the objects of my invention are, first,

to utilize both the phosphorus and the iron in the manufacture of ingot iron and steel in order to decrease the cost of production and facilitate the treatment of the metal during de phosphorization; secondly, to open up an extensive use for the forge-cinder which'will relieve the puddling process and its product from the steady accumulation of phosphorus which takes place when the forge-cinder is used for the product-ion of forge-metal for the puddling-furnace.

In the practice of my invention sufficient quantities of the forge-cinder are added to the charge to produce a metal by the blast-furnace containing from one to three per cent. of phosphorus according to the amount of calorie desired to be developed during the overblow.

The percentage of forge-cinder added to the charges of the blast-furnace will vary in proportion to the varying amounts of phosphorus I contained in charges of different ores, and also in proportion to the different amount of phosphorus present in the different kinds of forgecinder charged.

W'hen the phosphoritic metal is made it may be run into a vessel and conveyed direct to and treated in a basic-lined converter; or, if desired, it may be run into pigs, remelted, In either case the iron of the slag is not only utilized, but its phosphorus, when transferred to the metal, maintains the bath in a highly-fluid state during the overblow, and thus facilitates the dephosphorizing operation, so that an im proved quality of basic ingot iron and steel may be produced at a considerably decreased cost.

By the use of this invention I am enabled to.

out mixing in a basic lined vessel and in the presence of basic additions by means of an airblast until the phosphorus is transferred from the metal into the calcareous slag; and as the calcareous slag may be utilized in the blastfurnace for the production of metal for the basic process, or may be ground up and used as a fertilizer for agricultural purposes, a great saving in the cost of producing ingot iron and steel may be effected.

Having described my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

The withindescribed process of utilizing the phosphorus of forgecinder, which consists in first smelting the forge-cinder in company with iron ores, and, second, subjecting the resultant molten metal to the action of an air-blast while said metal is held in a basiclined converter in presence of basic additions, substantially as described, whereby the phosphorus of the forge cinder is utilized to produce caloric and eliminated from the metal,

as set forth.

JACOB REESE. Witnesses: v FRANK M. REEsE, WALT R REESE. 

